Christmas at Gardner Village

Now, I know there are some of you out there that think celebrating Christmas before Thanksgiving has even happened is a complete and utter travesty. I would tend to agree with you, but when Jocelyn and her boys came to town to celebrate her sister's wedding, I knew we had to make a trek down to Gardner Village. After all, I had heard rumors of it being a place that mischievous elves congregate. And seeing how Jocelyn and I are the proud owners of a couple of mischievous elves, we figured we would blend right in.

As luck would have it, my parents were able to come up for the weekend to spend some time with four of their grandkids. It was especially good timing since Joce and I were without our men. Cody was busy putting bodies back together down in Fresno, and Nate was needed up at the Ute football game. Grandad acted as the official chauffeur and spent most of the time pushing around Hudson. The weather was a bit chilly and so "His Royal Highness" spent most of the time nice and snug in his carriage. 

On occasion, Hudson would peek his little head out if he found something amusing or heard one of the other kids shrieking with laughter. If he found Talmage and Bryn entertaining, Grandad was nice enough to get him out and tote him around for a bit which is no easy feat considering how heavy he is. My poor Dad also had a to field a bunch of questions about where Hudson got his amazing hat. By the end, I am sure my Dad just wanted to take the hat off so people would stop coming up to him. I just smiled and said, "Sorry, Dad. That's what happens when you have cute grandkids. Sometimes they garner a lot of unwanted attention." Eventually, Hudson fell asleep in the stroller for which I am sure my Dad's arms were grateful for.

Poor Grandma Steph drew the short end of the stick and got stuck with the mischievous little elves. Bryn and Talmage both insisted on holding one of her hands nearly the entire day. They had a good time window shopping and going inside to look at the toys. Their other cohort, Zane, will be celebrating his birthday in a few months, and therefore they were given the task of finding any and all things related to robots which is Zane's current obsession. In the end, Bryn and Tal were able to help Grandma Steph find Zane a cute little stuffed robot. 

At one store, we stumbled across this little train track that was set up. Bryn and Tal had a great time playing with the train and only a few tears were shed. I think if we would have let him, Tal would have stayed their the rest of the afternoon and would have been perfectly content.

In another store, the kids found these squishy balls that had a giant eyeball on them. They were left over merchandise from Halloween in which the store was trying to liquidate all of them. Grandma Steph quickly pulled out her purse and bought each of the kids a ball. She paid for two balls but between her, Bryn, and Talmage, they ended up leaving the store with three balls. Nearly a hour later, while reaching into her purse, she found another ball. Bryn and Talmage had their ball tightly clasped in their hand which is where they had been the entire time. Once she realized her mistake, she insisted on back tracking to the store to return the ball. Even though she rectified her mistake, we still like to call her "Shoplifting Steph" every now and then.

This poor elf didn't realize who he was asking for a hand-out.

You had better get use to that empty hand buddy!

By this time, we were all starting to get a little hungry. We headed to the little bakery nestled among the shops, and Grandad treated everyone to giant cinnamon rolls, piping hot chocolate, and huge sugar cookies. These cookies were so big that even Brynlee was impressed by their sized. 

Just outside of the bakery, we ran into this little gem: a wagonload of elves jamming out on their musical instruments. We placed Bryn and Tal up on the wagon for a quick little photo op. Because the elves were playing music, I told the kids that they had better dance along. Bryn started swaying and bobbing her head immediately. When it comes to dancing, my little girl in uninhibited and what can I say, the girl's got rythm. Talmage, however, was a little more reserved and needed a little coaxing before showing us his moves. After watching Bryn make a complete fool of herself, Talmage joined in and began waving his arms back and forth. I honestly don't know which was funnier: Bryn doing her little head bob while shimmying side to side, or Tal waving his hands back and forth like windshield wipers. It still makes me laugh when I think about it. 

The next shop we went into was my favorite shop of all. There were thousands of Christmas items including tree ornaments, figurines, and miniature Christmas villages. However, it was one of those store where the children had to be watched extremely close so we wouldn't be forced to buy any broken merchandise. The kids wandered around with eyes as big as saucers gawking at all the Christmas stuff. They were so awe-struck they barely even made a peep except to let Grandma Steph know when they spotted their favorite cartoon character or Disney Princess.

I saw these little signs that made me laugh, so I had the kids pose with them. Their expressions matched their signs perfectly. Tal's said, "Oh darn. I forgot to be nice," while Brynlee's read, "Naughty or nice? Decisions, decisions." We spent so much time in there, the kids began sweating and wanted to take off their hats which resulted in some pretty amazing "hat hair."

By this time, we were about ready to call it a day. Jocelyn wanted to make one last stop to pick up a "Elf on the Shelf" for her little family to enjoy during the holidays. While she went inside to make her purchase, Brynlee and Talmage thought they had better check to see if they were on Santa's Naughty List. Since neither of them could find their names on the list, they thought they were good. I personally believe their names were not on the list because "Brynlee" and "Talmage" aren't exactly common names. To me, that seems to be the only logical conclusion as to why their names didn't end up on the naughty list. 

Now wait a minute, Jocelyn has not one, but two boys. So where was Tristan this entire time we were out and about you ask? Bundled up sleeping and pretty much just being perfect.

After we left Gardner Village, we all headed down to City Creek for a little shopping at H&M followed by dinner and the fountain shows. And per tradition, Grandma Steph had to empty out her coin purse so the kids could make their wishes. Since City Creek has opened, I can confidently say my mom has personally donated nearly $30 in coins for the fountains. This is when my mom had her second brush in with the law today as a security guard came up and told her the kids were doing something that wasn't allowed. My mom apologized while I just stood there and loudly said, "Sheesh. Whose kids are those?"

It was a great day. My kids didn't even make it out of the parking garage before they were fast asleep.